


Blood On Your Hands

by MeredithBrody



Category: NCIS: New Orleans
Genre: Bullying, F/M, Gen, Suicide
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-15
Updated: 2016-07-15
Packaged: 2018-07-24 02:18:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7489500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeredithBrody/pseuds/MeredithBrody
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tragedy befalls the team in a surprise and shocking way. (Suicide included)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by the song "You're Not Innocent" by Codi Kaye, and it's an amazing song if you listen to it. I recommend it. This is going to be 4 chapters long.  
> Parts of this are also inspired by (and therefore dedicated to) the Sophie Lancaster Foundation. RIP Spo, I can't believe it's been almost 9 years.

****_It started out at school, always saying she wasn’t good enough_  
Rumours spread and stories told that she somehow heard of  
Then the social network came and it got so much badder  
Telling her to just give up, so she listened to the chatter 

They were on the way to interview an informant at the prison, something non-urgent that they didn’t really need to do, but Merri had wanted to get it out of the way so that they might actually have a whole weekend off. It didn’t happen all that much, but they were hopeful. She wasn’t really paying that much attention, as she had a lot more on her mind than this case, and so she only paid attention when Pride’s voice suddenly raised, and she realised he was on the phone. “Wait, wait what?”

“Here, give me the phone.” She held her hand out, really not wanting them to crash because all of a sudden King was distracted by whatever the conversation on his phone was. Knowing that there weren’t many things that could elicit that reaction out of him. “This is Special Agent Meredith Brody, can I ask what’s going on?”

“We can only speak to family.” Was the immediate response, and that made her think that this was probably actually about Laurel. Linda was not married to King any more, and she knew that everyone at the prison where his father was knew who she was. At least she could now say that she was family.

“I’m Agent Pride’s wife.” It was still weird to say, but they had only been married for a few months. She hoped that it would convince them to actually tell her what was going on, because she was worried about the change in King and the fact he was clearly focused on going somewhere other than the prison. At least they hadn’t made an appointment today.

“Oh, ma’am, I apologise.” There was the sound of rustling papers, and Merri tried to focus on the sounds, to try and work out where the other end of the phone was. After a few seconds she concluded it was a hospital, and that didn’t bode well. “We believe we have a patient in the ER here that is his daughter.”

“Laurel?” It was more out of surprise than anything, because she hadn’t really expected it to be Laurel. It had been the logical explanation. An unknown patient believed to be Laurel and an emergency phonecall, likely for identification... they both knew what that likely meant.

“Yes ma’am.” He heard the clipped reply, and couldn’t help but roll her eyes. She didn’t feel like she was old enough to be a ma’am to average people who weren’t associated with her through work. It was a sign of respect there, here it just made her feel like an old married woman.

“We’ll be right there. Give me the address.” She took it down, realising that Pride knew where they were going anyway. Outside of New Orleans, the geography of Louisiana was not her strong point. She could get herself home from anywhere, and that was about it. She depended on her satnav for everything else.

“It can’t be Laurel. She would have called me if something was wrong.” King seemed to be trying to talk himself out of this being the news that he didn’t want, and she actually couldn’t entirely blame him. She didn’t want for this to be Laurel either, but something made her think that it was, it just fit with all the evidence they were presented with.

She wanted to reassure him, but she also wanted for him to be realistic. There was a lot that could have happened. “That’s not necessarily true, Dwayne. They aren’t sure it’s Laurel either.” Both were points. Laurel liked to try and deal with things on her own as best she could, it was important for her. “It’s only about 20 minutes away.”

“We should call Linda.” King was obviously panicking slightly and really Merri knew that she needed to try and take a little more control and help him stay in control until they got to the hospital at least. She tried calling Laurel a couple of times, not getting an answer, and that actually clued her in more than anything else that this was not going to be good news.

“Let’s wait and see if it is Laurel.” It would be premature to call Linda if it wasn’t Laurel, and it would just annoy her if she rushed out here only for Laurel to be perfectly OK. Sure it was a long way, but there were regular flights, and Merri was certain that Linda would be able to be there within a couple of hours.

“What if it is, Merri?” King just needed more reassurance again, and that was something that she couldn’t really give. Not right now. That wasn’t the way that it worked. She could be there no matter the outcome, but he needed to just hold on hope that this wasn’t Laurel, and that it wasn’t as bad as it had sounded.

“Then we’ll find out when we get there.” She said in the end, knowing he needed to hear something. Waiting and watching as they carried on to the hospital. She ran after him when they got there, skidding to the desk just as he got there.

“Agent Pride, I got a call my daughter might be here?” He sounded a little demanding and pushy, then again they were probably used to that. His daughter was possibly a patient here, and that bothered him quite a lot. Merri just watched him a moment then started running a hand up and down his back.

“Let me just get the doctor.” The clerk said and stood up. Merri stayed where she was, running her hand up and down Pride’s back. Trying to keep him calm while they waited to find out if this girl was Laurel, and if so she wondered how she was going to deal with this. It was going to be hard no matter what happened, and she didn’t honestly know what to do.

“Agent Pride? You must be Agent Brody, come this way.” They were guided down the corridor to a room away from all the others, and Merri knew that room, she’d visited that  room one too many times. “We had a woman with your daughter’s ID brought in to us in the early hours of this morning. She had ingested a cocktail of household drugs that caused her to stop breathing, we tried to resuscitate her for over an hour.”

“Wait, are you telling us she’s...?” King let the sentence trail off as the doctor stopped outside the door. The clinical white of the room didn’t make it at all easy for her, and she hated the fact that she could tell from where she was stood that it was Laurel, she squeezed Kings hand and pushed him slightly through the door.

“I’m sorry sir, yes. Is this your daughter?” They were led to the bed, and with ever stop she saw more of Laurel. She didn’t look like herself, and she realised she hadn’t actually seen Laurel since the wedding. Her hair was ragged and her face was thin and it looked like she’d lost a lot of weight.

“Yes, this is Laurel.” King whispered, stroking Laurel’s hair back from her forehead. It was obvious that he wasn’t going to be able to pull away. She went back to stroking his back and tried to just reassure him. “Baby girl, what happened?” He asked quietly, but they both knew Laurel would never be able to answer that question.

“I’ll go call her mother. Stay with her babe.” Merri kissed his cheek then motioned to the doctor to leave him alone with his daughter. It would gie her chance to find out what had happened, and seeing the chart in the door Merri maid a note of it so she could have a look through it when there was a chance. “What happened?”

“Her roommate found her in their dorm when she got back from studying. You’ll have to speak to the university for any other details.” The doctor was clearly trying to be as helpful as she could be, but there was no way at all that she could actually tell them anything. That would be something for campus police to tell them about.

“Thank you.” She tried to be gracious, then just pulled her phone out, scrolling through to Linda’s name. Merri did not currently have the best of relationships with King’s ex-wife, but in this situation she would put everything aside. “Linda, you need to get to the hospital in Baton Rouge, it’s an emergency.” She didn’t wait for hellos or pleasantaries, she knew they needed to share the information as quickly as possible, and she still needed to call at least one person.

“What happened Merri?” Linda was clearly already moving the moment that Merri had said anything, but that wasn’t really going to be enough. She needed to rush, but Merri didn’t want to give any details over the phone. It wasn’t fair that Linda find out her only child had died from her ex’s new wife over the phone.

“Linda, you just need to come OK?” She didn’t want Linda to keep pressing, but she knew that she would. There weren’t all that many situations where Merri would willingly and happily call Linda, in fact there were none. So this should have been the sign that all was not well in Louisiana.

“Is Dwayne alright?” Why did Linda’s mind jump to him. Laurel would have called if it was King, because Merri would have had other things to deal with. The fact Merri was ringing should have been the biggest clue, but Linda wasn’t an investigator, and Merri had to stop expecting people to make the same intuitive leaps that she did.

“Yes, he’s fine. It’s Laurel she... get here Linda. Just get here. I’ll text you details.” She took a deep breath, and given Linda’s silence she clearly realised that this was as serious a phone call as she could get. “I need to call our team.” With that she hung up, forwarding the text she’d gotten earlier she then scrolled through and called Chris.

“Brody, where are you?” He demanded, and it took everything she had not to break down then. There was still so much that needed to be done, and she needed to keep it all together until it was completed. That wasn’t going to be easy, but King needed her to keep all he office affairs in order while he wasn’t entirely with it.

So she took a deep breath in and focused on what she needed for him to do, which was essentially notify the director that there was a huge issue in the NOLA office, and that they needed someone else to answer their calls for today. Tomorrow they could cover for Pride. “Chris, you need to call Vance, get him to put us on bypass for the rest of the day.”

“What happened?” There was an instant sound of concern, and she could picture him sitting forward and Percy running over to hear the conversation too. It was an unusual request, and it only tended to come when something serious happened to the agent in charge. This was about as serious as something could be.

“Laurel was found dead in her dorm room this morning. King and I are at the hospital right now. Vance will understand.” She was absolutely certain that Vance would just let them take the rest of today. He knew they were all close, and that they all knew Laurel. They would all be affected.

“Are we investigating?” LaSalle’s question was what she would have expected, what she would have asked herself if it was anyone else. What they had all done when Cade LaSalle had been framed for murder. There wasn’t going to be much to investigate here though, and while the college would no doubt investigate the issues around Laurel’s death, Merri knew there would be no charges to file here.

“King will want to, but it looks like suicide. She took a cocktail of household medications.” Merri took the opportunity to pick up Laurel’s chart, and looking through the blood results she frowned a little. Laurel may not have been telling anything or anyone, but she had been serious that she wasn’t going to recover. “Looking through her chart she washed it down with alcohol. From these blood results an entire bottle of whiskey.”

“I thought Laurel loved school?” Sonja was the one asking the question and the truth was, Merri had thought she had too. Both of them had talked to Laurel about school, and while Merri knew she’d had some problems, she’d never made it appear like it was this bad. Bad enough that she felt like she had to end it all.

“Something changed. Call Vance and get us put on bypass.” She was getting a little anxious to make it back to King, and she knew that it wouldn’t help to rush things here to make it back to him. She had to trust that Chris and Sonja would be able to get everything done. “He won’t refuse when you explain.” She didn’t know Vance that well, but she was going to make sure she text Gibbs and let him know what had happened.

“Take care of King, Merri.” Chris’ voice was as terrified, and that made Merri all the more concerned. She knew that this was a bad situation for everybody involved, and she didn’t want to have to think about how much worse this could get. She had seen how bad King had been with Baitfish, and nobody involved in that case had been his daughter.

“I will, you take care of everyone else.” She moved the phone away from her ear and sent the text to Gibbs. She knew that he would be seeing Vance before anything could happen. It wouldn’t surprise her if they saw him out here before long. He was King’s oldest friend, and he needed all of his friends right now.

“My little girl, Merri.” He cried, and she stroked her hand up his back again. He was so broken already, she didn’t know at all how to help him. All she knew was what had helped her when Emily had died, and she would do all of that. “I couldn’t save my little girl.”

“I know babe.” She whispered and wrapped her arms around him as he just collapsed against her holding on to Laurel’s hand. She couldn’t really help him deal with this, and she knew that nothing was going to make this any easier, not when he loved his daughter as much as he did. All she could do was be there for him and hope that she could catch him.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Started out with a razor when she was shaving her legs_ **   
**_Then it got to a knife when she wasn’t with her parents_ **   
**_Always wearing jumpers and bangles, it got to suicide attempts_ **   
**_And then they pushed her too far and she walked over the edge_ **

Vance had given King two weeks leave, and Merri had put in for some leave on top of it. She knew that she needed to be with King. He needed his wife, and the truth was she really wasn’t a great wife, but she knew what was needed. It was taking time for her to work it out though. Today, she just really wanted for him to get some sleep. They’d let Linda stay with them the night before, though she’d decided to get a hotel this morning. No doubt staying with your ex-husband and his new wife was not the start to the grieving process that anyone would have wanted. She was listening to something on YouTube when there was a knock on her door. People had been avoiding them, more than coming around, so she wondered who on Earth would be knocking on the door right now. Stepping up she recognised the silhouette through the curtain, and just opened the door. “Agent Brody? I was told this was where King lived now...”

“Come in Orion.” She said quietly, deciding that it was going to be easier to just let him in, and they’d heard he was out of town with his parents and had rushed back as soon as he’d heard what had happened with Laurel. Her roommate had called him. She cast a furtive glance to the stairs as she all but pulled Orion through the door and toward the sofa, knowing he’d need to speak too.  

“I was only out of town for a week.” He sounded more than a little lost, so Merri sat him down then went to get a pot of tea. A habit she’d picked up when she was living with James was to make tea whenever anyone was having a hard time. She hadn’t thought much had stuck with her from then, but the calming properties of tea had always stuck with her. As she came back in the lounge she smiled at him, handing the mug of tea before sitting down beside him. “Where are her parents?”

“Linda is at the morgue, King is upstairs, he didn’t sleep last night so I told him to stay in bed.” Merri knew that he probably still wouldn’t sleep, but at least he would be rested. That is what he needed really, and Merri didn’t expect him to sleep much for the next few weeks. She wasn’t stupid enough to assume that he would be able to push it all out of his mind enough for that. “You knew?” She wondered if Laurel had let Orion in to her thoughts, maybe they could lead to a window that would help all of this make some sense.

“Some of it, I only started noticing recently and confronted her about it.” He looked like he was broken up about the fact he hadn’t worked it out beforehand, and really she didn’t entirely blame him. No matter what happened he would always think he could have done more. Maybe she should call Daniel and see if he’d sit and talk with Orion a little.  “Apparently it started in high school. If she wasn’t doing the best at something they told her she was worthless.” Merri remembered high school and the bullying that had come along with being in high school.

“It continued through to college?” Merri was always going to be an investigator, and she couldn’t help that that was where her thought process tended to go. She knew that there were a lot of circumstances when someone took their own life, and it was rarely able to fit into a specific box, but she felt like she owed it to her family here in New Orleans to get to the bottom of what had made Laurel think this was the only way out.

Orion was clearly battling with the guilt of not telling anyone what he knew or suspected about Laurel’s mental state, and Merri thought that it was probably important that he knew that nobody thought that it was his fault that Laurel had taken this action. That wouldn’t be fair on the poor boy. Merri moved over to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, and a second later felt him curling in to her like an infant. He had probably needed the reassurance more than even he had known. “A lot from her high school went to LSU too, she didn’t know how to get away, and she didn’t want to tell anyone.”

“What happened recently?” She couldn’t help herself wanting to know all that had happened. Unsolved cases and things left unfinished were huge issues for her, and her brain didn’t like them at all. So she would always try to investigate them, get to the bottom of things, especially when it affected her so personally and the lives of those around her. She needed answers and right now Orion was the only one who could give her some.

“Remember after she was attacked on campus?” Merri doubted she would ever forget that case, as it had brought Agent Hardy into their lives for the first time, and had made them realise that their cases didn’t always only affect them. Sometimes it could affect the rest of their family. “They started calling her a murderer, telling her that that was all she’d be good for now. I tried to convince her that she was wrong.”

“But she didn’t believe you?” Merri didn’t really need to ask that question, of course she didn’t believe him. Despite all the times Emily had reassured her, Merri had never believed her. The more important thing right now was that Orion tell the university what had happened, as they were the ones who were officially investigating. “Did you speak to campus police?” She asked as he pulled away a little, and she just nodded trying to reassure him again.

“Before I drove here. I can’t believe she’s gone.” He whispered, and Merri could hear the broken denial in his voice. It was something she had experienced more than once herself, and she couldn’t really imagine it. “We only spoke last night... right before she...” He was trying to talk, and Merri just took another deep breath and smiled at him softly.

“Come here.” She opened her arms and let him cuddle in to her again. Rubbing a hand up and down his back in a similar way to how she’d tried to comfort King most of the night before. She was concerned about all of the people who had known and loved Laurel.  “You’ll stay in my guest room tonight, you can’t drive back like this. It’ll be alright.” She didn’t want Orion getting into an accident because he was distraught and driving.

“I tried to help her. I really did.” Orion cried, and Merri just sat rocking him, listening as he mumbled quietly about how much he missed her. She just made soothing sounds, hoping that he would calm down eventually. She couldn’t stay like this all night, but right now Orion needed this. She had no idea how long then ended up staying sat that way, but the tea was cold by the time Orion pulled back a little.

“How long was she being bullied?” Came a sudden voice from the stairs, and Orion jumped out of his skin at that. Merri looked up and scowled slightly, not exactly happy to see that King had gotten up, as she knew he still needed to rest. She couldn’t force him to stay there though. She had thought about handcuffing him to bed, but it was probably overkill.

She looked up after a minute and shook her head softly. Orion looked terrified, and she had sort of hoped that she could have done this in a measured way. “Dwayne, you were supposed to stay in bed.” She said quietly, motioning to the seat on the other side of her. This was not a time when she thought they’d be better off giving each other space.

“I couldn’t sleep.” He said quietly, but he did come and take the seat on the other side of Orion then slid his hand into hers. Neither of them were normally quite this tactile, and to her it was a sign that he needed her more than she knew, which is why she wasn’t going to leave him. “I’m alright Meredith.”

“She wouldn’t let me tell anyone.” Orion said quietly by surprise, and Merri felt King’s hand tighten around hers. She slid her fingers between his as they continued sitting there, she knew that he needed the support. It wasn’t all that surprising that both the men in the room were struggling with this far more than Merri herself was. She needed to stay strong for them, because they needed to be kept happy.

“I’m not surprised, I wish she’d told one of us. We could have protected her. Helped her.” She knew that, right now, he was even more guilty about the fact he’d talked Laurel to going back to school in the spring given that she had clearly been trying to get away from everything. “Especially after that conversation in February.” That wasn’t a conversation that Orion needed to hear, so she’d send him upstairs and try to calm King down again.

“Orion, why don’t you go and sort out the guest bedroom, it’s the one at the end of the corridor.” She smiled as he headed to the stairs, and only once he was up them did she turn back to King and fix him with a glare. He needed sleep, and then he could calm things down again and think more logically. “Dwayne, you really should be trying to sleep.”

“I can’t sleep while you’re not there right now.” OK, in a way that was really sweet, but she couldn’t stay in bed with him all day even if she did want him to sleep. Tonight she’d stay wrapped up with him until he’d slept through the night if that was what it took. Without Linda here it would be easier for her to do so. “She told me she wanted to drop out, Merri. She said it was because she didn’t know if it was what she always wanted to do, but what if it was because of this.”

“King, you can’t...” She started, but he obviously wasn’t listening. He had slid down slightly so that his head was on her shoulder and so she couldn’t even look straight at him to actually tell him to stop freaking out about the fact that he had sent her back. She could have said then that she was struggling, she hadn’t.

“We all knew there was something going on with her then, all of us. You and LaSalle saw it too. If I’d let her drop out maybe she’d be...” He continued, and she knew that he was going to blame himself, but she was sad to see that it had gotten to this point. She was going to have to snap him out of it some way, and she was now feeling a little too sick to do it her usual way.

“Dwayne!” She shouted, and that was enough to make him jump and sit up a little more. “This isn’t your fault babe. Bullying is a problem, and nothing you could have done would have prevented this.” She stroked his cheek and shook her head. She knew that nothing she could say would help, but maybe she could convince him that it wasn’t his fault. “I was bullied in school, never so badly as this, but you do start thinking that they can’t be wrong. No matter what you would have, or could have, said... it wouldn’t have changed how she looked at herself.”

King sighed and as she gazed at him she realised exactly how broken he was by all of this. She couldn’t blame him, she would be too, but Laurel should have let them in, let them help. Laurel hadn’t wanted that more. “I should have protected her more Merri.” King muttered, and Merri just leant forward to kiss him softly.

“You know it doesn’t work that way.” She assured him, holding him a little closer. She wanted to make this better for everyone involved, but there was no way this could be better. “We have dinner with Linda tonight to make the arrangements, don’t forget that. We should bring Orion, he knew her best.”

“I love you, thank you for being so strong through this.” King ended up whispering as he buried his head in her shoulder. There were things they needed to get through and done, and then they could start moving on and figuring out what they could do in Laurel’s memory to try and help make sure this never happened again.


End file.
